Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 review

A pocket-sized camera with a big zoom makes a lot of sense. The zoom gives it a clear advantage over smartphone cameras, but it still has all the convenience of a point-and-shoot camera. Panasonic’s latest flagship model, the TZ60, really pushes the boat out with its enormous 30x zoom range, stretching from a wide-angle 24mm to a paparazzi-like 720mm (equivalent) focal length. Sony was the first to put a 30x zoom in a compact camera with its Sony Cyber-Shot HX50 and Canon and Nikon both have 30x zoom models on the way too. So while it may be impressive, it’s far from unique.

The TZ60 will have more luck standing out with its electronic viewfinder (EVF). We don’t recall ever seeing one before on a pocket ultra-zoom camera. It’s useful when direct sunlight makes the 3in screen hard to see, and also for long-sighted people who struggle with LCD screens. The quality of this (EVF) isn’t up to much, though, with a small image and a grainy 200,000-dot resolution. It’s good enough to frame the subject, though, and the small protrusion on the corner of the camera doesn’t add much to its bulk.

Comparing the TZ60 with its predecessor, the Panasonic TZ40, the new model also gains two rotary controllers. There’s a lens ring on the front and a wheel that encircles the navigation pad on the back. These can be assigned to various functions, or left for the camera to decide depending on the selected shooting mode. Manual focus is particularly well implemented, thanks to the combination of lens ring, digital magnification and a peaking mode that highlights sharply focussed subjects. Even so, autofocus is more useful in most cases. Moving the autofocus point is slower than it was on the TZ40, as this newer model lacks a touchscreen. Things improved once we’d reassigned the Fn button to focus area. There’s also a Q.Menu button that gives quick access various other key functions.

The shift from a metal to a plastic body is another step backwards compared to the TZ40, although the slightly rubber-like texture has a certain charm of its own. The TZ40 didn’t have much of a handgrip but the TZ60’s is even smaller, reduced to a small ridge. Still, it’s just enough to wrap a finger around, and the rear of the camera is better contoured to provide a thumb grip. The resulting hand position pretty much guarantees that the flash will be partially obscured by a finger.

Wi-Fi is built in, along with NFC for hassle-free connection to compatible Android devices. The Android and iOS apps include comprehensive remote control over the camera, with the ability to capture both photos and videos and full access to exposure, autofocus and image quality settings. It’s even possible to set the autofocus point using the phone or tablet’s touchscreen – just the thing when composing group portraits remotely. GPS is included for geo-tagging photos, and smart power management ensures that it remembers its position between uses but doesn’t drain the battery excessively quickly.

Video capture is up to Panasonic’s usual high standards. There’s 1,920×1,080 capture at 25p, 50i and 50p, plus a slow motion mode that records 720p at 100fps, playing back at 25fps for quarter-speed motion. Details in videos weren’t as razor-sharp as from the best cameras but they looked smooth and natural, and the autofocus and optical stabilisation behaved well. Video quality in low light was excellent, with significantly lower noise than from the Canon SX600 HS that we tested alongside the TZ60.

Photo performance used to be a particularly strong area for Panasonic but its advantage seems to be slipping. We measured 1.8 seconds to switch on and shoot, and 0.9 seconds between subsequent shots – both a little slower than the TZ40. Continuous shooting remains at 10fps, and lasted for six shots. It was ready to go again five seconds later. There’s also an option to shoot at 5fps with continuous autofocus, although this became slower and erratic after seven shots. These are all respectable results, but not as impressive as on previous TZ models.

The move from a 20x zoom in the TZ40 to a 30x zoom here sounds like a big upgrade, but it’s only worthwhile if the lens can deliver sharp focus. We weren’t blown away by the crispness of details in telephoto shots, but the results were far from poor. Limitations appeared to be more down to noise from the 18-megapixel sensor, which meant that the camera struggled to distinguish between noise and fine details. However, the TZ60 had no problem resolving greater detail in distant subjects compared to the 18x zoom Canon SX600 HS. There was some evidence of chromatic aberrations on high-contrast lines, but it wasn’t particularly noticeable in most shots.

Sharpness in this photo at the full zoom extension is pretty good. More detail is lost due to noise reduction than from a lack of focus

The discoloured lines on the edges of the swans’ necks are chromatic aberrations, but they’re far from intrusive

The camera often picked surprisingly slow shutter speeds for telephoto shots, but we were impressed by how reliably its optical stabilisation performed. Automatic settings responded intelligently to moving subjects, raising the shutter speed as necessary to avoid motion blur. Priority and manual exposure modes are available too for those who want full control.

A 1/60s shutter speed is surprisingly slow considering the 720mm (equivalent) focal length, but the optical stabilisation has kept the image reasonably sharp. Noise isn’t too intrusive at ISO 800 (especially in the processed RAW image). Faster shutter and ISO speeds would have produced much more noise

The extra zoom is welcome, but for us, a more significant change is the introduction of RAW capture. Lightroom 5 doesn’t yet support the TZ60’s RAW files as we go to press, but we were able to process them in Photoshop CC (using Adobe Camera Raw 8.4 release candidate). The results were consistently better than the JPEGs, with less noise, smoother, crisper details and the ability to rein in chromatic aberrations. Processing RAW images takes a certain amount of effort, but we’d happily shoot JPEGs for casual snaps and switch to RAW when the situation demanded it.

Shooting RAW produces more natural skin textures with better handling of highlights

Noise is a problem in shadier parts of the image even at ISO 100, but RAW mode provides a practical workaround. The camera has done well to ignore the strong backlight and expose for the face

RAW mode has helped us get rid of these chromatic aberrations, and produce much cleaner textures in the dark feathers

JPEGs are looking quite messy for indoor shots at ISO 1600, but results from the RAW file are once again much better

As with the TZ40 before it, the TZ60 is greater than the sum of its parts. In many respects it’s good rather than excellent, but the fact that it’s never less than good makes it a dependable all-rounder. For us, pocket ultra-zoom cameras are all about versatility and dependable results, and that’s exactly what this one delivers. It’s not cheap, though, at almost twice the price of the Canon PowerShot SX280 HS. The Canon comes top for image quality and remains our top choice, but the TZ60 isn’t far behind.